


An Origin Story

by WhereverMySITakesMe



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Injections, Medical Experimentation, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Seizures, Temporary Character Death, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 22:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7125016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereverMySITakesMe/pseuds/WhereverMySITakesMe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HYDRa's experimentation on Pietro and Wanda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Origin Story

It had been over a week since Pietro had seen or spoken to his sister. Over a week without much of anything happening at all, apart from almost unbearable waiting. After the scientists had taken an excessive amount of blood from each of the volunteers they had been escorted to small, white, single-person cells and left to pace, or stare at the walls, or talk to themselves.

List finally returned with eleven syringes, one for every volunteer. No one said a word but if this was the result of the experimentation... it could give Pietro super powers. He let the man inject him without protest, still alone in his cell.

The effects were almost immediate. Pietro felt a tingling spreading out from the injection site, like ants crawling underneath his skin. It didn't hurt but it felt...strange.

Then the screaming started. All around him were howls of agony from the other volunteers. Wanda was not screaming, a small blessing perhaps, but he could hear her retching desperately and painfully in the next cell. The injection must have been effecting the other volunteers more than him. He wished it was Wanda who had had the least painful effects.

Suddenly Pietro was lying on the floor and shaking violently all over. His limbs were flailing out of control, his muscles were cramping harder than seemed possible. Pietro opened his mouth to scream in pain but he couldn't get air into his lungs. He desperately needed to breathe. Black spots started to dance in front of his eyes. Every muscle in his body was screaming in pain, cramping and relaxing too fast to give him a second of relief, his limbs burning. His head slammed into the ground, sending another blinding flash across his eyes. It was a relief when unconsciousness finally claimed him.

Pietro had two more seizures that night. Every time he came around he could hear Wanda vomiting unceasingly. It seemed impossible for her to have anything left to bring up and it had to hurt and couldn't be good for her but the pain and exhaustion were so extreme he could hardly think clearly enough to worry about her. Even so he knew he would have done anything to help her.

***

 _We can do it Wanda. We are not normal either. We will make it._ That's what he had told Wanda when they had signed up for the experimentation. He hoped it was true

***

Pietro woke again to two men dragging him to his feet. His limbs felt simultaneously as weak as wet paper and as heavy as lead and his head was swimming but he somehow managed to stay on his feet as they dragged him to where five of the other volunteers were standing in a semicircle, all looking as bad as he felt.

As soon as Wanda heard his footsteps she turned to face him, her eyes desperate. Her face was deathly pale and covered with a sheen of sweat and she had vomit on her hair and clothes. She was also wavering on her feet. The guard let go of him with a shove and he somehow managed to stumble over to his sister's side.

"You are alive!" Even in a whisper, the relief in her voice was clear. She wrapped an arm around him, trying to take some of his weight "I did not hear you screaming and I thought... Everyone was screaming" Both of them knew what had happened to the other five volunteers.

"Me? I am too tough for that." He smiled as much as he could and tried to shrug off her arm but everything started spinning around him so instead he wrapped his arm around her to pull her close.

Wanda managed an equally weak smile in return and gripped his arm tightly. Pietro kissed the top of her head. "Do not leave me, little one."

She nodded, by now being supported by him as much as she was supporting him "Do not leave me either."

"I will not."

They kept holding each other as List made the entire sad group of volunteers stand for over an hour like performing monkeys without any tricks before accepting that they had no powers and sending them back to their cells. Pietro had to be dragged away from his sister's side.

***

"Did anyone anaesthetise them? There's no point keeping them close enough to resuscitate if they go and die of pain." The man's callous voice struck fear through Pietro. They had not tried to stop the volunteers going through agony, dying in agony, before. They had not been anaesthetised anyway and the latest fluid was already flowing into his and Wanda's veins. He started to breathe deeply and evenly. Maybe it would help.

His blood was on fire. The pain was unimaginable. He started to howl and writhe. His heart was hammering in his chest. Every beat sent fresh spears of agony shooting through him. He bucked against the chair again, fighting against the flames inside him. The restraints keeping his wrists on the chair tore through his flesh like knives. Whenever anything touched his skin, even his clothes, it burned.

It felt like hours passed as Pietro struggled and screamed, begging for it to be over. One of the men pressed his fingers against Pietro's neck. He didn't understand why and he didn't care. The rough treatment should have hurt but Pietro was still in too much pain for it to even register "He's holding on too. Put the three of them back in their cells"

***

_We are not normal either. We will make it._

***  
After two days, Pietro was still lying on the floor, not moving and hardly breathing. He was still in so much pain. He was sure it would have hurt less if they had injected him with hydrochloric acid. But the pain must have dulled slightly because he realised he was hungry. His meals where left just in front of the door. He would only have to move a meter or so. Pietro heaved himself up into a sitting position just as someone entered. The man looked Pietro over and took his pulse "Still at death's door. Don't give him the next treatment yet. We're burning through volunteers."

Pietro pulled himself on his knees towards the door. It was time for another round of experimentation and if he was to be left alone he wanted to see what they did to his baby sister. Wanda did not protest as she was lead to a chair and her wrists and ankles were tied down, and she barely flinched as the needle went into her arm. Pietro held his breath in anticipation. Wanda watched the clear liquid leave the syringe and kept her gaze fixed on her arm. She was holding her breath too but as the minutes passed he saw her release it. Nothing seemed to be happening. She clenched and released her fist, as if she was expecting it to have an effect. It didn't.

Just when Pietro thought she was safe the liquid finally took effect. Wanda was arching her back off the chair as much as the restraints would allow and trying to kick with her legs. She let out a strangled cry and tears were running down her face. The blood had drained from her face. Her struggling started to become less violent. She started gasping for breath and her eyes rolled back in her head.

Suddenly it stopped. The tension in Wanda's body released and she slumped in the chair. It could have been unconsciousness, which would have been a blessing for her, but she was not breathing. A trail of blood escaped her lips. Wanda was dead.

Pietro felt his heart shatter. He was shouting, screaming, hammering his fists against the door of his cell. He had to get to Wanda, he did not try to think how he could possibly help, he just had to be close to her. He hit the door again, harder and harder, beating his fists bloody. He dug deep inside himself, searching for strength, for speed, for teleportation or telekinesis. Anything that could get him out of the cell and to his sister's side. Any power at all.

But there was nothing. He screamed himself hoarse and beat his fists to pulp fighting with everything in him, to no avail. The men were coldly trying to resuscitate Wanda. Perhaps it would be enough to save her. It had to be enough to save her. He was panting so hard he could barely breathe and his throat was so raw his shouts weren't even audible. His arms were so heavy he couldn't keep hammering the door. His head felt incredibly heavy. He could feel it dragging itself towards the ground.

He was lying on the floor again with his head resting on his arms as everything turned yellow and then faded into black.

***

_We will make it._

***

They didn't bother to wait for Pietro to regain consciousness before putting him into the chair in Wanda's place. He came around as they were tightening the straps around his wrists and immediately looked towards Wanda's cell. She was not there. If she was alive that was where they would have put her. Rage and pain flared inside him and he twisted in the chair, trying to catch a glimpse of her body for the last time.

Wanda was standing behind him staring at her own hand. Alive. She was alive. Pietro felt his eyes fill with tears, he was so happy. Then he saw what she was staring at. There was a syringe floating several centimetres above her palm, surrounded by swirls of red gas.

This time it was Pietro's heart that stopped.


End file.
